Every day has exactly 24 hours in which we find ourselves having to focus our attention on different areas of our lives. For the working professional, their work day is typically made up of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for a total of 40 hours a week which occupies about ⅓ of the week. Because time is a valuable resource, many people look to be as productive as possible within the allotted time they have. Here are 4 simple habits you can start today to be productive with your time at work.
#1. Time-blocking
Time-blocking is the action of allotting a certain amount of time to do something like work tasks. This allows you to focus on time-consuming tasks that require greater amounts of concentration than a few minutes. One of the best ways to implement this is by using your work calendar. For example, if you receive a couple of tasks that you need to work on but know that they’re not going to be done within 10 minutes or less then you can open up your work calendar and block off more than 10 minutes to work on this specific task, and even go as far as giving the title the name of your task. Additionally, by blocking this time, you know that unless necessary, meetings will not be set for you if your work calendar is used for setting up meetings so you truly will have all your focus and attention on this specific task. This is especially useful when you have a list of tasks to get to but need more than a few minutes here and there to complete it.
#2. Prioritization
When you receive a new task, you can set the priority for it by sorting them into low, normal, and high based on urgency, which is subjective to your job. By doing this, you can be more productive by tackling those tasks that are more important than others which can be completed over the course of a longer period of time. For example, if you have some tasks that have a further away deadline than others then you would mark those as low and high priority in your task list, respectively, in your working document where you keep track of your tasks. This way you are not randomly spending your time trying to complete as many tasks as you can but rather you are strategically working on the most urgent tasks first.
#3. Email Subject Line CTA
If you have ever received a promotional email, then you have seen a call-to-action (CTA) on your email’s subject line like “Time to upgrade your phone”. These are meant to compel consumers to take action on the promotion. Similarly, this can be used in sending work emails where you need something from another colleague to do your job. For example, if you are needing your boss's approval for an order placement by the end of the day, your email subject line might look something like “Your Action Needed by EOD | Approval for Flyer Order''. This is especially helpful when you are reaching out to executives in your organization who might get more than a few emails a day and might quickly glance at their inbox so catching their eye with the email subject line can be another tactic to get what you need sooner so you can move forward with completing your work.
#4. Breaks
Finally, one other simple productive habit to start today is to welcome breaks. They help us refill our energy because we are not machines that can keep on outputting productivity without breaking down. For example, if you’ve been working at a task for quite a well your body will start to give you signals that it’s time to take a break like tiredness or losing focus.
While starting new habits can be difficult, your future self will thank you for investing the time in your present to be more productive with your work time.
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